We usually wouldn’t bother with such things. But this year is the one year we have hope. The Super Bowl is airing on the same network that carries the Stanley Cup Finals. So the vote is a simple yes or no, whether – in commercial during the game, pre-game, or simple Michaels-read promo – or not the NHL will get any promo time during NBC’s Super Bowl broadcast. Thank you for reading PTM, enjoy Wassel tomorrow, Curl Saturday.

Anyone who knows who that is and reads a certain hockey blog and knows who that hockey player is above these words can guess what’s coming up here.

We’d like to welcome Wrap Around Curl to the Puck the Media Unisphere. She will be editing things on Saturdays from now on. She has free reign on those days.

You may be asking us: Why are you doing this on Thursday, can’t this wait till Friday? Well, we’re traveling tomorrow most of the day and then again on Saturday, so we’ll miss out on Friday. Our good friend Chris Wassel of The Programwill guest edit on Friday. Please enjoy him and Curl this weekend, till we’re back on Sunday.

Editor’s Note: With the Devils honoring Mike Emrick on Friday night with a night dedicated to him, we feel the need – since we are unable to be there due to a prior commitment – to re-post this.

My hockey watching dates back to about 1995. Just after the New Jersey Devils had won their first Stanley Cup, my father had purchased (do you still have to purchase MSG Plus separately, dad?) what was then called SportsChannel. I’d like to say that my first remembered Devils game was against the Leafs, because that was definitely the first one I watched. But the first one I actually have a pictured memory in my brain of? It was a January 1996 game between New Jersey and the Islanders. It was hockey, so it was good. Oh, and this happened:

With it’s Bruce Springsteen-penned theme tune and Mickey Rourke’s comeback performance, it was only a matter of time before “The Wrestler” drew us in. But after finding that photograph, we may have to get ourselves to a movie screen post haste.

The Trenton Devils are featured in the recently-released movie “The Wrestler,” which stars Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei, who have both been nominated for Academy Awards for their performance in the film.

The film is set in New Jersey and Judah Friedlander, who plays Scott Brumberg, wears a T-Devils jersey in several scenes.

Friedlander is a comedian known for his role as Frank Rossitano on the NBC show “30 Rock”, and broke out onto the scene in 2001 as “The Hug Guy” in The Dave Matthews Band music video, “Everyday”.

Since it’s nationwide release on Friday, “The Wrestler” has received critical acclaim from throughout the country and was ranked 49th on the Internet Movie Database’s (IMDB) best movies of all-time.

Thank goodness the Devils used the IMDB rankings to show off the film’s importance.

We’ve been wondering for awhile, in the overly sensitive culture we live in, why Mike Milbury’s use of the terms “pansy” and “pansification” in terms of NHL fighting hasn’t bugged any of the millions of special interest groups that exist across America and Canada.

Well, we have our first horse out of the gate so to speak. The group is called Eagle Canada, a “gay advocacy organization” according to The Globe & Mail’s William Houston, who has more:

“That’s ridiculous,” said Helen Kennedy, the executive director of Egale Canada. “So it’s okay for people to go around using these slurs — derogatory, stereotypical terms against a group in society? That’s outrageous.”

Network spokesman Jeff Keay said neither Milbury nor Cherry intended to offend homosexuals by using “pansification,” a derivative of the word pansy.

“The point is, it was no way intended to be a reflection on or offensive to gay people,” Keay said. “I think the colloquial use of the term was something they didn’t associate with gay people. The way the language evolves over time, 20 or 30 years ago it would have been seen, reasonably enough, as a direct slur against gay people.

“But I think with usage now, I’m not sure the association is so immediate.”

Kennedy wasn’t buying the explanation.

“Words like pansification just further the stereotype and perpetuate the homophobic stereotype in our society,” she said yesterday.

I don’t think Don Cherry and Mike Milbury were looking to insult homosexuals with their comment, considering I don’t think Milbury or Cherry would ever admit to having spoken to one before. Either way, I feel that Eagle Canada is taking this the wrong way. Milbury isn’t right to use the word “pansification”, though, because A. it makes no sense grammatically, and B. it’s calling anyone who dislikes fighting a pansy.